Lowton: Partnership with Johann almost telepathic

Andre Schurrle, pictured with Burnley's Matt Lowton, was a handful at Craven Cottage

Published:07:30Saturday 29 September 2018

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Matt Lowton and Johann Berg Gudmundsson have an almost telepathic understanding, according to the Clarets defender.

After entering their third season together, and cultivating their partnership down the right hand side, the 29-year-old right back feels that they now know each other’s games inside out.

Lowton, signed from Aston Villa in the summer of 2015, with the Clarets back in the Championship, missed out on Burnley’s Europa League qualifiers against Istanbul Basaksehir and Olympiakos and dropped to the bench for Premier League games against Manchester United and Wolves.

However, he was restored to Sean Dyche’s starting XI for the record win against AFC Bournemouth at Turf Moor and the duo continued from where they’d left off.

“I’ve played a lot of games with Johann, he’s a great lad, he’s an honest as the day is long and I know he’s going to help me as much as I help him,” said Lowton. “I enjoyed being back out there.

“We know each other’s games inside out, that comes from playing a lot of games together, working hard on the training ground.

“We spoke before the game about making sure we do our jobs and we did that, especially with him getting the man of the match.”

Even the smaller details make a big difference. Lowton provided the decoy run to pull Cherries defender Diego Rico out of position, providing the Icelandic winger the space to deliver the ball left-footed for Aaron Lennon to finish.

“That’s the good thing about having the wingers on the opposite sides, the overlapping run is designed to take the defender away to give him space on his left foot,” he said.

“It works both ways, if the defender stays with him he can slip me in.

“It worked well and we’ve got that understanding, with the quality he’s got on his left foot we need him crossing balls in. That momentum makes a massive difference and can only breed confidence.”